Artem is BACK!
|
Well, Artem never went anywhere but they are definitely back with a brand new offering, NATO straps. In my watch community, there were a few people that asked me if I had bumped my head when I argued that the sailcloth straps, from said brand, were worth their asking price of USD85, so I’m tipping that this will happen again when arguing that USD63 for a strap made of nylon is not just excellent but again, worth the asking price.
I will again point out that the paradox of spending several thousands of your hard earned (one would hope) money on a watch and then ordering the cheapest strap you could possibly find is utterly ridiculous. |
What I will definitely entertain is not liking NATO straps at all, at any price. That’s me, I have zero interest in them. They always remind me about being a kid in the backseat of our Volvo DAF where the seatbelt always seemed to find a spot on my neck for slow and steady nylon edge wear. God that still gives me the S%$# even thinking about it.
So anyway, when Artem asked if I’d like to try out their new straps, I only accepted since I loved their canvas straps and have a lot of respect for them as a company. Offering high quality watch accessories to the world from the city of Adelaide in southern Australia, now that’s an underdog if I ever came across one. |
What is a NATO strap?
|
If this is the first time you’ve heard about NATO straps, however unlikely that is if you’re here, all you really need to know is that Sean Connery’s James Bond wore one and that’s probably why we even care about them still today.
From a military perspective, the main advantage is that you can simply thread it through already attached spring bars and should one spring bar fail, your watch will stay attached to your wrist. This feature is also what makes it a bulky on your wrist, since you’ll have two layers of material between your watch and your wrist. What is also a funny kind of feature is that the straps are usually slightly too long, and the idea is that you fold them over on the outside of your wrist, adding a bulbous element to the outside of your wrist. 
There are two ways to eliminate the bulk. The shorter strap containing the loop, that holds the longer strap in place after threading through the spring bars - you could cut this off completely and have just one layer of material. You could also trim the length of the whole strap to not have it fold over. There is one problem with that which I’ll touch on later.
|
|
Why Artem NATO then?
|
With all that out of the way, perhaps it comes at no surprise to see that the material used is once again that step above the competition. The straps are slightly thicker than the norm for nylon but importantly, soft on the sides. I’d gladly have these gently wear on my neck or anywhere else on my body for that matter (almost).
What is also worth pointing out is that the steel loops are stitched into the nylon and there are no steel parts that will touch your skin, except obviously the buckle. The floating keeper is held in place between the stitch into place loop and the buckle. Nicely done. Speaking of the steel loops, we have gentle branding elements present with Artem on the steel loop likely to sit on the outside of your wrist and the Artem logo in the buckle. These are both inobtrusive, discrete and attractive. Happy to be corrected here but in my experience, few NATO straps have branding since they do tend to be a bit cheap and nasty but this is one brand that you would gladly be associated with so well done. |
|
|
As I mentioned, the length of the straps is worth touching on. The ones I’ve owned, I’ve typically trimmed down a bit since I don’t like that signature bulbous double fold on the outside of my wrist (see video above) but I’m not sure I’d do that with these straps. Why? Because they have been carefully treated with …something, at the very edge. This has clearly done so they will be as long lasting as the rest of the strap. So yes, well done and all but now I can’t cut it down to size without feeling like an ignorant monster. Sure, it’s nylon and you could simply hold the cut to size edge to a naked flame. I would do that on a $10 NATO strap but possibly not a $68 one.
|
|
|
The final subject to cover are the colour choices. If you make a NATO strap you have to do the Bond one. Question is, which one? Connery’s strap on the Submariner had black and green stripes but when that movie eventually made it to TV screens back in the day, they were black and white so the strap looked black and grey. Daniel Craig wore a black and grey on his Omega Seamaster and since it’s arguably Omega that have really backed the Bond movies more than Rolex ever did, perhaps the black and grey is the go. I am reliably informed that there are forums for this, where you can go and argue about which one is the true Bond strap.
Anyway, there is a black and grey Bond one. There are also three other versions. Another black and grey with blond outlines (makes you wonder, is this the proper Craig one with even more ridiculous controversy about a blond Bond). It’s very attractive and I’ll be attaching that to a few future reviews on my YouTube channel. We have an orange style thick line through the middle of a black strap which I can easily see fit a number of divers out there and finally the Commander watch strap. To me, this is the most photogenic one with its beautiful grey, red and light blue colour. I think this would really lift a plan black watch to new heights. I love it. |
|
Conclusion
|
So are they worth the asking price? Ultimately, this question is one that only you can answer yourself. Do you value incredibly well-made watch accessories from a small, independent brand that take pride in their work? Then yes.
Would you rather buy 8 different colours to work out which one is for you? Then no. But I would recommend doing that first and then come back and place your order with Artem when you know which colour is for you since these are some of the finest NATO straps you can buy. They are still NATO straps though which by their very nature are not for everyone. Thanks for reading, if you liked this review then I’d love it if you shared this with your own watch communities. Cheers, Esbjorn |
|